3rd liners who can fill a 2nd line role on a poor team are likely not $4 - $5 million men any more.

Top line players will get theirs, 2nd tier will get theirs from lower tier teams. The rest can take what they're offered or learn to enjoy Soviet domestic flights.

Yup

2-3 tweeners and d-men in the 4 though 7 spots are going to get just hammered this off season.

If the Canucks could clear some salary they could be in great shape heading into free agency.

That said, I'm not sure how eager Aqua Man is going to be to go the buy out direction, especially on serviceable players.

Booth and Ballard will both have about 8.5 still owing to them after this season if memory serves the B/O rate is roughly 2/3rds of the remaining salary so he would end up writing a check for over 12 mill to clear both guys.

We have good owners, but I don't see that happening especially when both guys are serviceable.

Very close to what I'm thinking - one of Higgy or Raymond stays, and I concur with the rest. In this scenario there's even a little bit of cash let over, depending on contract values. Gillis has proven time and again that he gets good value when he signs guys, will be the same this year.

Diehard1 wrote:Very close to what I'm thinking - one of Higgy or Raymond stays, and I concur with the rest. In this scenario there's even a little bit of cash let over, depending on contract values. Gillis has proven time and again that he gets good value when he signs guys, will be the same this year.

As a UFA... I would suspect Raymond gets more than Higgins. Given that we already have guys like Sedin-Sedin-Burrows-Booth-Kassian-Kesler, I'd be inclined to pay Higgins less and retain him for grittier minutes and an ability to step up. It really depends on numbers. If Calgary or TO is going to throw silly money at Raymond, see ya later.

Could we pick-up a Derek Roy for a decent price? What's Fillpula gonna go for, given Detroit's depth at C? Could Robyn Regehr be had at half price? Will Brodeur retire? Might Anaheim want David Booth once Perry leaves, can we swing him for rights at the draft? If Washington continues to tank, who goes where? I get the feeling Free Agency will be a massacre this summer, and so will the draft.

Gillis better be ready to pull the trigger quick, because I'm betting things move faster than he can un-screw the cap on his Vita Lift eye roller.

I'm not the biggest fans of ballard/booth either. Hopefully we don't have to buy them out and maybe we can just trade them to someone in a pure salary dump. Kind of like what San Jose did to give us Ehrhoff. They're pretty much players entering their prime years with only a couple years left in their contracts after this season, so someone might take a chance on them.

Diehard1 wrote:Very close to what I'm thinking - one of Higgy or Raymond stays, and I concur with the rest. In this scenario there's even a little bit of cash let over, depending on contract values. Gillis has proven time and again that he gets good value when he signs guys, will be the same this year.

As a UFA... I would suspect Raymond gets more than Higgins. Given that we already have guys like Sedin-Sedin-Burrows-Booth-Kassian-Kesler, I'd be inclined to pay Higgins less and retain him for grittier minutes and an ability to step up. It really depends on numbers. If Calgary or TO is going to throw silly money at Raymond, see ya later.

Could we pick-up a Derek Roy for a decent price? What's Fillpula gonna go for, given Detroit's depth at C? Could Robyn Regehr be had at half price? Will Brodeur retire? Might Anaheim want David Booth once Perry leaves, can we swing him for rights at the draft? If Washington continues to tank, who goes where? I get the feeling Free Agency will be a massacre this summer, and so will the draft.

Gillis better be ready to pull the trigger quick, because I'm betting things move faster than he can un-screw the cap on his Vita Lift eye roller.

Agreed, Raymond likely will get more than Higgy, especially since his current salary is higher and he will likely have more goals/points. He's not necessarily a better player, just better counting stats.

There will be lots of changes this off-season with the cap coming down - Van is in ok shape compared to a few teams. There will be some good guys given away for peanuts.